Wrench with work engaging steadying means



Jan. 30, 1951 G. c. ROBINSON WRENCH WITH WORK ENGAGING STEADYING MEANSFiled Dec. 5, 1946 George C. Robinson Patented Jan. 30, 1951 VJRENCHWITH WORK ENGAGING STEADYING MEANS George C. Robinson, Los Angelcs,Calif.

Appiication December 3, 1946, Serial No. 713,620

1 Claim.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements and structuralrefinements in wrenches, and the principal object of the invention is toprovide a device of the character herein described wherein the workengaging head will be actuated with considerably greater amount of powerby the expenditure of relatively lesser effort on the part of theoperator, as compared with wrenches of conventional design.

A further object of the invention is to provide a wrench which is simplein construction, dependable in operation, and which may be effectivelyemployed in restricted or poorly accessible locations.

Another object of the invention is to provide a wrench which willreadily lend itself to economic/al manufacture and which may be easilydisassembled for purposes of inspection or repair.

With the above more important objects in view, and such other objects asmay become apparent as this specification proceeds, the inventionconsists essentially of the arrangement and construction of parts asillustrated in the accom. panying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the invention.

Figure 2 is a cross sectional view, taken substantially in the plane ofthe line 2-2 in Figure 1, and

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view, taken substantially in the plane ofthe line 33 in Figure 2.

Like characters of reference are used to designate like parts in thespecification and throughout the several views.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the inventionconsists of a wrench designated generally by the reference characterII), the same embodying in its construction a pairof spaced parallelside plates I l, configurated substantially as shown and connectedtogether by a marginal enclosure !2 so as to provide what may bereferred to as the housing It.

The plates 1 I are formed with a pair of transversely aligned, circularopenings Hi adapted to receive a rotatable head Hi, this being providedwith a suitable, preferably hexagonal recess l6 which constitutes asocket for receiving the work, such as a nut or a head of a bolt.

The head I is provided at theperiphery thereof with a plurality of gearteeth ll, these meshing with an intermediate gear or pinion it which isrotatable on a transversely extending pin 19 secured in the side platesl l.

A further transversely extending pin 28 is provided in the housing I3and a ratchet gear 2 I,

meshing with the pinion I8, is rotatably mounted on this pin, as will beclearly apparent from the accompanying drawings.

tubular handle 22 is formed at one end thereof with a pair of spacedcars 23 which are pivotally, that is, rotatably mounted on the pin 28and straddle the ratchet 2!, as is best shown in Figure 2. It will benoted that the continuity of the marginal enclosure 52 is interrupted toprovide an opening 2 whereby the attachment of the handle 22 to thehousing it is facilitated.

The handle 22 is equipped adjacent the pivoted end thereof with atransversely extending pin 25, this carrying a rotatable pawl 26. Thepawl is equipped with a pair of spaced dogs 2! which are selectivelyengageable with the ratchet 2 l, and a further pair of spaced dogs orlugs 28 are provided on the pawl, as is best shown in Figure 3.

. One end of the flat spring 29 is positioned between the lugs 28, whilethe remaining end portion of the spring is anchored in a suitable slotformed in a pin 30 secured in the handle 227 The latter is also formedwith a transversely disposed slot 33 which receives a slidable,button-like member 34. The intermediate portion or shank of this memberis slotted to receive the spring 29, as is best shown in Figure 3. W

It will be noted that the housing I3 is provided with a laterallyprojecting extension 35 which terminates in a pressure pad 35hereinafter to be more particularly referred to.

Finally, it will be observed that the side plates ll of the housing areseparably attached to the enclosure 12 by a plurality of suitable screws31 to facilitate convenient disassembly of the housing for purposes ofinspection and repair.

The free extremity of the handle 22 is formed with a pair oftransversely aligned apertures 38 whereb the wrench, when not in use,maybe conveniently suspended from a suitable nail or hook on a wall.

When the invention is placed in use, the socket I6 is simply applied tothe work, such as a nut or the head of a bolt, whereupon the button 34is slid to one or the other end of the slot 33. This action will resultin the engagement of one or the other of the dogs 27 with the ratchet 2|as is facilitated by a provision of the spring 29.

Thereupon, the handle 22 may be oscillated in the direction of thearrows 39 and the movement of the handle in one direction will betransmitted through the medium of the pawl 26 to the ratchet 2| andhence through the medium of the pinion l8. to the head l5. Accordingly,an interrupted, unidirectional motion will be imparted to th head and tothe work engaged thereby. However, since the gears l8 and 21 are ofrelatively smaller diameter with respect to the head I5, considerablemechanical advantage will exist and the head will be rotated withrelatively greater power or torque, as compared to the exertion of smalleffort on the part of the operator.

The head l may be rotated in an opposite direction by simply sliding thebutton 34 to the opposite end of the slot 33, thereby engaging theremaining of the dogs 2'! with the ratchet 21, as will be clearlyunderstood.

It should be understood that while the handle 22 is being manipulated,the housing it, as a whole, should be held stationary by the operator,this being a relatively easy task when the work is in the initial stagesof tightening Or in the advance stages of loosening,

To provide against the tendency of the housing to rotate in theanticlockwise direction when the wrench is operated under full load asin. the final stage of tightening, the pad 36 may be brought in contactwith suitable structure adjacent the work, or it may beheld stationaryby some other suitably devised means, and rotation of the housing willthus be prevented.

It is believed that the advantages and use of the invention will beclearly understood from the foregoing disclosure and accordingly,further de* scription thereof at this point is considered unnecessary.

While in the foregoing there has been shown and described the preferredembodiment of this invention it is to be understood that minor changesin the details of construction, combination and arrangement of parts maybe resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention as claimed.

What I claim as my invention is:

In a heavy duty wrench, the combination of a. housing containing anexternally toothed and rotatably mounted work-engaging socket, anoscillatory actuating handle pivoted to said housing, a train ofreduction gears operatively connecting said handle to said socket, andan outwardly extending rigid stabilizing finger provided integrally onsaid housing, said finger terminating in a work engaging pressure pad.

GEORGE C. ROBINSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 685,698 Sprague Oct. 29, 1991919,260 Smith Apr. 20, 1909 1,357,707 Helm Nov. 2, 1920 1,795,150 SlaZesMar. 3, 1931 2,341,775 Hawk Feb. 15, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number CountryDate 373,436 Germany Apr. 12, 1923 742,147 France Dec. 21, 1932

